What is Ethical Business Practice?

Introduction

When you buy a jumper, do you ever think about where it's come from? Or the conditions the workers made it in?

When your bank pays you interest, do you ever wonder where they've invested? Would you be comfortable with these companies using your money?

When you choose your shampoo, do you know if it's been tested on animals?

Is the packaging recyclable?

If you've ever asked yourself questions like these, you're already playing a part in promoting ethical business practice. Maybe without even realising it.

In today's society, we as consumers are taking a far closer look at the products and services we buy and use - not to mention the companies that produce them. The scandals of sweatshops, environmental destruction and false profit announcements that have hit some businesses have had extensive TV and press coverage. We realise that we have a choice as to whom we deal with. A choice that worldwide more and more of us are making, refusing to have anything to do with businesses whose working practices don't live up to our own standards. We're no longer happy to accept what the business world tells us as gospel. We're basing our impressions of companies on, amongst other things, their labour practices, environmental records and responsibility to society at large.

This constant demand for companies the world over to act in an ethical manner has led many of them to continually assess their impact on society. To question what more they can do to improve their commitment to good business practices. They have realised that they must take society's values and make them their own, adopting an ethical business practice policy.